I really enjoyed the tiny url you posted. I doubt anybody was shocked by his demise....the phrase "you can't eat bacon every day" comes to mind...and there were many other obvious risk factors. When you think about it, he died of a tag team of natural causes.

Likely... but his eyes also appear somewhat dilated with an obvious cataract situation and redness in one eye versus the other; the nasal area appears to have some redness going on too. In Hof's defense, this could also be signs of allergies and Benadryl use versus anything more potent. He obviously wouldn't be the first "celebrity" to die from overconsumption of drugs obtained either legally or illegally.

Yes, this!

It doesn’t have to be catchy, it just has to be repeated over and over. President Pinocchio, Putin’s Poor Presidential Prostitute, whatever... it will get to him.

And that catchy term Stephen Colbert called Trump:
Putin's "Glock Pollster." ;)

I saw a doco on this toad ages ago, he spent years in exile for tax evasion and other assorted crimes before slithering his way back into the US.

Hof? Dennis Hof's legal troubles consisted primarily of multiple "employees" accusing him of rape... not an uncommon charge for a pimp.

Actually, it sounds like you're talking about Joe Conforte, the prior owner of the legal brothels Hof purchased in the early 1990s. Conforte fled the United States in the early 90s to Brazil leaving huge sums of unpaid taxes, and Brazil refused to extradite him back. Wonder how much that cost him and who got paid over there? As far as I know, Conforte is still alive and living in Rio. Crime sometimes pays... generally it'll catch up with you, though. The Trump crew can explain how that whole thing is working out for them. :)

One only has to mention Trump's lineage to make him scratch his itch... Grandfather, draft-dodging whorehouse owner--Father, tax-evading war profiteering convicted felon.

You're exactly right, JTC. The vast majority of bullies like Trump are also frauds. You expose them for who they are, and they'll overcompensate by doubling down on the lying and whining to the point where only the deaf, dumb, blind, and/or apathetic aren't aware of the con.

We are giving a middle-income tax reduction of about 10 percent. We're doing it now for middle-income people. This is not for businesses. It's for middle. ~ Donald Trump, 10/22/2018

Watch and learn, people. Trump is doubling down on his lies and stepping up the bullying. Anyone still ignorant enough to believe this con needs professional help to pry themselves from the depths of delusion. :)

That's all the closing argument that we should need.
I've never, in fact, seen a president make such a clear prima facie case against himself.

The Khashoggi Affair is the perfect candidate for "Exhibit A" in his political prosecution, combining as it does, the perfect intersection of Trumpian vices. Here we find the intersection of greed, incompetence, authoritarian hostility toward the press, self-dealing, the military industrial complex, narcissism, transactional politics, nationalistic hawkishness, and Kushner.

All that's missing is a hooker, and he's in a twitter war with her.

Now, it looks a little more like a pretty well-reasoned suggestion.

The Saudi rulers don't need Trump's permission nor his complicity. They're barbarians, and a couple trillion dollars of wealth can't change that. It may be worthwhile to put these thugs into the historical context they still practice.

Saudi Arabia is a state engaged in wartime criminality in Yemen. It committed an act of war last year against Qutar, and hostilities, if not clashes of arms, persist. Women can drive now, but most likely can still get imprisoned or stoned to death for being raped.

None of that is surprising, because the House (although I prefer the more descriptive word 'Clan') of Saud is little changed over more than 200 years of win-some, lose-some brigandry. After Abdulaziz, around 1800, massacred thousands of men, women, and children and looted the tomb of Mohammed's grandson, the Ottomans beheaded him and the Egyptians cast into prisons every prince they could track down.

But they couldn't get 'em all, and by 1900, they were back. With the help of the Brits, they stayed occupied by killing each other. Then, they became the real life version of the Jed Clampett clan with various European and American families and entities serving in the role of Banker Drysdale. As it's said, the rest is history, only there's very little history that isn't the present with these people.

In the traditional Arab (and the Bedouin, and even the Berber) view of things, the crown prince's crime is being too naive and foolish to pull off a successful assassination. If he had more experience as the ruler of the Clan of Saud, the head of a commoner enemy would have been presented to him in traditional fashion, i.e., on a silver plate of melons, and that would have been that. Live and learn, or, maybe in this case, not.

In the Western scheme of things, though, he committed two serious crimes.

First, he killed the wrong guy. Not a reporter, but a man responsible in part for the Washington Post's editorial position on Saudi matters writ large. This Kushneresque crown prince will now never be tolerated on a permanent basis to be Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and The Remaining Oil; he will be stained for the rest of his days, by an international establishment press that will not forget, and lurk just over the sand dunes, waiting to tear him to pieces.

His second, and likely the more serious, crime was the stunt he pulled last year --again right out of a 200-year old family playbook-- of sawing off and looting the threatening parallel limbs on the family tree. He screwed that up, too, by not casting into dungeons all eight of his uncles on the Abdulaziz side and all the cousins he could lay his hands on, and let the rats and ants eat them alive. All he did was check a random bunch of the richest of them them into the Ritz, and order them to be beaten until they gave up all their PIN numbers and passwords. It was a kinder, gentler, way of doing things, almost civilized, almost out of a Queens or Brooklyn playbook.

It was the wrong way of doing things. There are a lot of powerful people in the US, Europe, and elsewhere, who lost a lot of money and influence over that stunt. Recall that Trump, late last week, said that he hardly knows the Kid. That, in the Trump Clan, is a kiss of death. It's also significant that Mnuchin isn't going to the Burning Prince festival or whatever it's named. No corporation or NGO with a brand they value is going to go, either.

There are other branches of the Saudi Clan who are far more acceptable to far more economic and state interests in the West, and the killing of the journalist may be just the excuse those interests need to get the Salmans put into a can, get the process rebooted back to 2014, and try again.

I don't know if Trump has much to say about it.

Sad to say, history is not on your side.

I agree wholeheartedly with ya, but this is different in a major way - Trump isn’t being held accountable for how his actions make him look, he is being held accountable for how he is making We, the People, look as a nation. Trump is making all of us look complicit in the murder with his acceptance of the crown prince’s ridiculous story of what happened. I realize that he’s embarrassed us plenty of times, but the seriousness of the crime requires our country to respond appropriately to send the message that this is never to be tolerated.

I also think that Trump’s response of making excuses for the Saudi’s has made it clear even to some of his staunchest supporters that Trump can be bought and he is advertising that to the entire world! If SA isn’t punished, then we can expect a lot of countries being emboldened by the free pass Trump has seemingly promised them if they commit horrendous acts of violence against their people.

Sad to say, history is not on your side. You're talking about a man that's been credibly accused of felonies, under oath, in a US District court; been credibly accused of sexual assault by at least 17 women; been accused in print of dozens of years of tax fraud; admitted to intending obstruction of justice in the firing of Comey; admitted to personally falsifying a false narrative of the Trump tower meeting, the same one that was repeated to a congressional committee by Don Jr., and is under investigation for much more and much worse.

At this moment (as I suppose it always has been) Trump is staying afloat through a combo of personal charisma and raw power. As long as he continues to hold his base and thereby keep congressional allies in line, he is nearly unstoppable. With SCOTUS now a solid conservative majority on every case (and now including a dependable Trump synchophant), Trump could be honestly described as the most powerful president ever. (involuntary shudder)

That's why this midterm is (literally, not as metaphor or hyperbole) the most important midterm election in American history. Unfortunately, proof of that will probably be delivered during the lame duck period after the midterms, when Ryan and McConnell will begin checking off all of the items on their wish lists. If they lose the House, they'll be frantic to make the damage they've already done as permanent as possible. If they hold the House it'll be way worse, open season really.

Obama did, and he set the gold standard. Sure, folks will say that Obama's takedown of Orange Jesus is what created Monster Trump in the first place, but even that argument (which can be refuted) acknowledges how brutally effective it was.

Have you noticed that Trump and the pubbies hardly ever even mention Obama, save to blame him for imaginary problems that they need to 'fix'? To hear them, you'd think that Hillary was running the country for eight years (with Pelosi as her VP).

Then again, Republicans' opinion of women seems to have hit a new low generally, as evidenced by recent arguments they've tried to make that, if Democrats win, no man will be safe from a false accusation of rape. How dare the Dems suggest that every woman should be initially be taken seriously!

To understand how deeply demeaning and absurd that argument is, substitute the word 'rape' in that sentence with 'car theft' (or any other crime).

To be fair, the #metoo folks have occasionally overstepped (*cough* Franken *cough*), evidenced by the tone-deaf criticism made about Hillary's defense of her husband by #metoo founder Tarana Burke.

Which is why my candidate for 'best putdown of Trump' goes to Stormy Daniels, for her reply to Trump after he called her 'horseface'. Her response, "Game on, Tiny!" was pitch-perfect.

Chris Hayes opined this week that Trump's 'superpower' is shamelessness. Bill Maher has said that ridicule is 'Trump's kryptonite'. Stormy can combine both, rendering her a surprisingly effective foil for our deeply flawed, and deeply insecure, bully-in-chief.

Trevor Noah had a great suggestion for black voters in Georgia — register as a “Republican”... your vote will not only always be counted, it might even get counted twice in close elections!

While I believe that forms the basis for a great message for Democrats in 2018/20 - not to mention 2022, God forbid - I don't believe it will resonate with enough of the American people.

And, therein, lies the rub.

valid points all. however, the issue is not just the message but to whom the message is delivered. for the last forty years, the message to the professional, investor and tech classes has been "yes, we'll protect your interests," while the message to the working class has been "we're all you've got." the same messages need to be delivered, except with the targets of those messages reversed. then, democrats need to fight like hell once elected, or they'll all be one-termers and the electorate will trust them even less.

JL

I'm getting sick to death of snowflake lefties yelping their lap dog warnings about getting into Trump's face, or fretting that the old biddies are distracting from The Message.

Meanwhile, Mitch implies that if they keep the House, Republicans will try again to repeal Obamacare so as to put a nail in pre-existing coverage for good. He floats the idea that slashing Social Security and Medicaid benefits is necessary, because the tax cut is inflating the deficit.

The Democrat's message should be simple: The Republicans are crooked, lying sacks of shit that are out to screw you, whether on purpose or by accident. The solution to that is also simple: Vote the bastards out.

BUT, say the intelligentsia, what with gerrymandering, voter suppression, and manipulation of the voting process, the Republicans are destined to win. Why bother?

If you're gonna be turning Chinese, better to learn Cantonese. South China is where the action is.

Fifty years ago, it was virtually certain that in every household in America there was something made in Wisconsin.

Now it's a near certainty that in every household in America, there is something made in Guangdong.

I've eaten at the Mandarin, does that count, Liz?

;)

LL&P

Anyone here speak mandarin?

I really enjoyed the tiny url you posted. I doubt anybody was shocked by his demise....the phrase "you can't eat bacon every day" comes to mind...and there were many other obvious risk factors. When you think about it, he died of a tag team of natural causes.

Democrats can beat Trump at his own game, and I believe he has made it clear where he is most vulnerable to attack: Trump is not as rich as he wants everyone to believe! This was the one area that was off-limits to jokes being made about during his roast on Comedy Central.

The attack needs to focus on how Trump is terrified to release his tax returns because he knows it’ll show:

1) He is no where as rich as he claims to be,
2) What little money he does have has come from the Russians!
3) Seeing how Trump forgot about the other $400 million his daddy gave him to get started, it really shows how terrible at business Trump truly is! Had he simply done nothing with that starter money but let it sit in the bank, he’d be worth about twice what he claims to be worth today!

The attack on Trump must be non-stop! It doesn’t matter if it’s stupid: Question: What musical instrument does Putin think of when he thinks of Donald Trump.
Answer: A trumpet - because he knows Donald is his “Trump pet!”

It doesn’t have to be catchy, it just has to be repeated over and over. President Pinocchio, Putin’s Poor Presidential Prostitute, whatever... it will get to him.

Considering the guy died the following day, the night before has to have been....'the time of his life'

I saw a doco on this toad ages ago, he spent years in exile for tax evasion and other assorted crimes before slithering his way back into the US.

LL&P

Trump just needs someone to drown him in questions he can't answer without lying. That's debate one. Debate two would be more pressing on the lies of debate one. That's how you 'Pocahontas' Trump.

Closing arguments for midterm candidates are easy...Where's your wage increase? Where are these shiny new factories being built for all the shiny new workers? Why are we still selling our good kidney to pay for the medication to save the bad one? Why is the GOP now telling us trickle-down economics won't work so the social net we all agree works needs gutting? Where has the fabled fiscal responsibility of the GOP gone, and why do they claim it's anyone's fault but theirs that the deficit is out of control, in this era of unparalleled prosperity? Why does the GOP hate women and people of colour? Why does the GOP embrace the slime of humanity such as, Putin, Mohammad bin Salman, Maduro and Kim Un?

The list is endless and all stops at Trump's front door, too bad he's already disavowed any blame for the midterm outcome...unless of course it goes his way, then he'll hop in his mind-TARDIS and convince his ragtag mob that it was all part of his grand design.

LL&P

Never let it be said that I didn't help your "failing" imagination. :p

https://tinyurl.com/y7psrcae

Again, you just can't make this stuff up, folks.

Sure you can make it up (watch and learn): And Heidi Fleiss was there, and Roger Stone and Tucker Carlson phoned in. Just kidding -- *shakes head* -- nope, not kidding. :)

JL